CA$HVERTISING How to Use More Than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make BIG MONEY Selling Anything to Anyone DREW ERIC WHITMAN Franklin Lakes, NJ a01 cash front.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 1 Copyright © 2009 by Drew Eric Whitman All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copy- right Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press. CASHVERTISING EDITED AND TYPESET BY KARA REYNOLDS Cover design by The DesignWorks Group Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further in- formation on books from Career Press. The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 www.careerpress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whitman, Drew Eric. Cashvertising : how to use more than 100 secrets of ad-agency psychology to make big money selling anything to anyone / by Drew Eric Whitman. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-60163-032-2 1. Advertising—Psychological aspects. 2. Marketing—Psycho- logical aspects. I. Title. HF5822.W47 2009 659.101’9--dc22 2008030819 a01 cash front.pmd 10/13/2008, 11:42 AM 2 Want Better Results From Your Advertising? Ad expert Drew Eric Whitman says: “I’ll teach you more about how to create powerfully effective moneymaking advertising than your competitors will know in their entire careers—guaranteed!” Dear Friend: Did you ever see a magician saw a lady in half? A sword swallower gobble down a 28-inch blade? A swami walk barefoot over a bed of fiery coals? These tricks are amazing. Mind-boggling. And seemingly impossible. But the truth is, if you knew the secrets behind them, you could do them too. Creating Effective Advertising Is No Different! Because, just as do those uncanny magicians, today’s advertising ex- perts have special tricks of their own. They use consumer psychology, pow- erful methods that influence people to read their ads, and buy like crazy. In fact, New York’s biggest ad agencies use these tactics every day. And it doesn’t matter what their clients sell; these tricks work for every busi- ness. Plus, they’re 100 percent legal, ethical, and powerful. Best of all... (Go to next page)... a02 cash promos.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 3 If You’re Ready to Learn the Secrets... I’m Ready to Teach You! Invest a few tax-deductible* dollars in this fun, fast, and easy-to-read book. In these fast-reading pages, I arm you with techniques that can help make your competition virtually disappear. I teach you how to turn weak, ineffective ads, brochures, sales letters, flyers, e-mails, and Websites into psychologically potent money-makers that help boost your business fast. No special skills are required. And most tricks cost noth- ing to use. Once you know the secrets, it’s easy! Meet you inside! Drew Eric Whitman P.S. I knew you’d read this P.S. How? Because the P.S. is one of the most important parts of any sales letter, and it’s often read first, before the body copy. Always use the P.S. to restate your offer here. Repeat your contact information, and push your prospect to take action! Now, turn the page and start reading! * Consult your tax advisor. a02 cash promos.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 4 To my loving parents, Bob and Eileen, for fostering my childhood passion for advertising and business...even when I should have been doing my homework. To my wonderful wife, Lindsay, for supporting my creative ideas, wacky plans, and off-beat business ventures that often keep me awake until dawn. To Gary Halbert, the “Prince of Print,” for helping me de- velop my voice when I was a mere copy cub. To John Caples, who taught me the definition of great advertising. To Walter Weir, whose dedication and personal instruction helped me land my first agency copywriting job in 1984. And to all who find value in what I do. Thank you. Drew Eric Whitman, July 2008 a02 cash promos.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 5 a02 cash promos.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 6 PREFACE 11 INTRODUCTION 15 CHAPTER 1: WHAT PEOPLE REALLY WANT 19 ✸ The Life-Force 8 ✸ The Nine Learned (Secondary) Human Wants CHAPTER 2: HOW TO GET INSIDE THEIR HEADS: THE 17 FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY 29 1. The Fear Factor—Selling the Scare 2. Ego Morphing—Instant Identification 3. Transfer—Credibility by Osmosis 4. The Bandwagon Effect—Give Them Something to Jump On 5. The Means-End Chain—The Critical Core 6. The Transtheoretical Model—Persuasion Step by Step 7. The Inoculation Theory—Make Them Prefer You for Life Contents a03 cash TOC.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 7 8. Belief Re-ranking—Change Their Reality 9. The Elaboration Likelihood Model—Adjust Their Attitude 10. The 6 Weapons of Influence—Shortcuts to Persuasion 11. Message Organization—Attaining Critical Clarity 12. Examples vs. Statistics—And the Winner Is... 13. Message Sideness—Dual-Role Persuasion 14. Repetition and Redundancy—The Familiarity Factor 15. Rhetorical Questions—Interesting, Aren’t They? 16. Evidence—Quick! Sell Me the Facts! 17. Heuristics—Serving Billions of Lazy Brains Daily CHAPTER 3: AD-AGENCY SECRETS: 41 PROVEN TECHNIQUES FOR SELLING ANYTHING TO ANYONE 79 1. The Psychology of Simplicity 2. Bombard Your Readers With Benefits 3. Put Your Biggest Benefit in Your Headline 4. Crank up the Scarcity 5. 22 Psychologically Potent Headline Starters 6. 12 Ways to Lure Readers Into Your Copy 7. 360 Degrees of Attention-Getting Power 8. The Reverse-Type Pitfall 9. Crush Your Competition With Extreme Specificity 10. The Famous Ogilvy Principle 11. The Psychology of Typefaces 12. Insist on the Pro-Design Difference 13. The Power of Questions 14. The “Granny Rule” of Direct Mail 15. The Psychology of “Social Proof ” 16. The Guillotine Principle 17. PVAs–The Easy Way to Boost the Power of Your Copy 18. Directing Mental Movies 19. Battling Human Inertia a03 cash TOC.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 8 20. Establish Your Unique Selling Proposition 21. Buy Your Own Island 22. Authority Positioning 23. A Sales Letter in Survey’s Clothing 24. Power Your Ads With Pictures 25. Grab ’Em With Grabbers 26. Long Copy vs. Short 27. Offer Testing 28. Survey Power 29. Editorial Energizers 30. The Coupon Persuader 31. 7 Online Response Boosters 32. Multi-page Your Way to Success 33. Guarantees that Guarantee Higher Response 34. The Psychology of Size 35. The Psychology of Page and Section Positioning 36. The Fantastic Four 37. Consumer Color Preferences and How Color Affects Readership 38. The Psychology of Pricing 39. The Psychology of Color 40. Wrap Your Ads in White 41. Give Yourself a “Cleverectomy” CHAPTER 4: HOT LISTS: 101 EASY WAYS TO BOOST YOUR AD RESPONSE 187 ✸ 22 Response Superchargers ✸ 9 Ways to Convey Value ✸ 13 Ways to Make Buying Easy ✸ 11 Ways to Boost Coupon Returns ✸ 46-Point “Killer Ad” Checklist a03 cash TOC.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 9 EPILOGUE 193 APPENDIX: RECOMMENDED READING 195 INDEX 199 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 203 a03 cash TOC.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 10 11 Preface Trash, trash, trash! That’s how I describe 99 percent of today’s advertising. It’s dumb. Boring. Weak. Not worth the paper it’s printed on. Am I angry? No. Realistic? Yes. But don’t just take my word for it. Look in your trash can. How much of the nonsense you get in the mail winds up there before you open it? How much of what you do open ends up in the same place before you finish reading the first few lines? How many TV commercials have convinced you to buy? How many e-mails have persuaded you to spend money? How many Websites have bored you to tears? I rest my case. The Bottom Line: The Goal of Advertising Is to Get People to Act Whether you want them to ask for more details, shoot you some cash via PayPal, or whip out their Visa, it’s action that makes advertising pay off. Because advertising is not journalism. It’s not news reporting. As a journalist, your job is to report what happened. You don’t need people to respond to succeed. Your primary interest is that they’re ac- curately informed and somewhat entertained. When you write advertising, on the other hand, you want people to do more than just read. You want them to do more than simply say, a06 cash pref.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 11 CA$HVERTISING 12 “Wow...great ad!” and then toss it into the kitchen trash on top of the grapefruit skins. No. You want people to act now, to place an order or request information that’s designed to persuade them to order. Let’s not kid each other, we advertise for one reason: to make money. Period. Do you know why most advertising today is so lousy? It’s because most people in advertising today don’t know a damned thing about what makes people buy. Believe it or not, it’s true. They like to be cutesy and clever. They like to win awards for creativity that do nothing more than boost their egos and waste thousands of dollars for their clients. Most advertisers (and their agencies) don’t know how to capture people’s imagination, and make them want to open up their wallets and spend money. When I asked my mentor, advertising great Walter Weir, “Why is most advertising today so lousy—even the ads put out by giant and successful companies?” He replied in his deep, radio announcer-like voice, “Drew, they simply don’t know any better.” That’s why I wrote this book. To pierce the veil of silly nonsense and costly myths. To pull off the blinders worn by so many well-meaning but terribly misinformed businesspeople who are scratching their heads wondering why their crippled horses—their poorly constructed ads, brochures, sales letters, e-mails, and Websites—aren’t winning races. Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything. —David Ogilvy, founder, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency How to Read This Book: Advice From the Masters Some time ago, an American reporter traveled to Tibet to interview a wise old Zen master. When the two sat down for tea, instead of letting the Zen master do the talking, the reporter began to brag about all the things he knew about life! The guy ranted on and on while the master poured the reporter’s tea. As he endlessly babbled, the tea quickly rose to the rim of his cup and began spilling all over the floor. The reporter finally stopped yak- king and said with surprise, “What are you doing? You can’t pour in any more! The cup is overflowing!” a06 cash pref.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 12 Preface 13 “Yes,” responded the wise master. “This teacup, like your mind, is so full of ideas that there is no room for new information. You must first empty your head before any new knowledge can enter.” Be open to new ideas, but do not believe what I tell you. Don’t either believe or disbelieve what you read in this book. I don’t even want you to accept what I say as the best way. And, most of all, please don’t read this book and then say, “Wow! Drew Eric Whitman really knows his stuff!” and then sit down with a bag of chips and watch Seinfeld reruns. Mere belief in these ideas won’t put cash in your pockets. Belief alone won’t put food on your table, clothes on your back, or a new car in your driveway. Instead, I want you to experience the results of using the techniques I share with you. Experience how your business and bank account grow. Experience the thrill of having an ever-increasing number of people hand you cash, write you checks, debit their credit cards, and pump up your PayPal account. How? By putting these prin- ciples into action. No matter what you sell, I hope this book helps you succeed. If one day you can attribute even a tiny percentage of your success to what I’ve taught you, I will have succeeded as well. a06 cash pref.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 13 a06 cash pref.pmd 10/8/2008, 4:10 PM 14